PC Ed Griffiths with part of a bomb which was one of four discovered on Chobham common

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Police were called to the former MOD tank factory on the northern border of the common at 1pm after staff at the site, owned by defence consortium QinentiQ, discovered the bombs. Officers were quick to seal off the area and notified a bomb disposal team from the 11 Explosive Ordnance (EOD) Regiment based in Aldershot. The team carried out controlled explosions just before 5pm. The roads and a stretch of railway near Longcross Station were closed for about 10 minutes. PC Ed Griffiths, beat officer for Chobham, West End and Bisley, was one of the first officers on the scene. He said: “We could feel the explosions. We just heard the bombs being exploded and then felt the rush of air and there was a lot of water and leaves lifted off the trees. “We felt the pressure of the explosion and it created a crater in the ground but that said, they were expertly controlled and done in such a way they didn’t send debris flying off in all directions.” He also praised the actions of the people who discovered the devices, which are thought to have been anti-tank missiles. He said: “The people who found the devices did exactly the right thing when they realised the nature of them. “They withdrew to a safe area and called police straight away on 999. “We would encourage anyone who finds similar items or suspicious packages to do the same thing.” PC Griffiths said with many of the area’s heaths being owned by the MOD, the discovery of unexploded devices on common land was not unusual. In the five years he has been treading the beat in Surrey Heath, PC Griffiths said he had been called to four instances where residents had discovered undetonated explosives. A spokesman for the 11 EOD Regiment confirmed a squad had been called to the common and though he could not confirm the bomb’s exact size, he said they were “not big”.